Category Archives: News

Act of Remembrance

Year 6 attended the Act of Remembrance at St Mary’s Church and at the Swanage War Memorial on Friday 9 November.

Emmanuel baptist Church put on a wonderful exhibition linked to The First World War including some beautiful pieces of artwork produced by local schools, including St Mary’s.

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Admission Arrangements Consultation

Dorset are running the annual consultation on the School Admission Arrangements for 2020/2021 with effect from Monday 12th November 2018 to Friday 21st December 2018. Details of the consultation will be available to view at https://www.dorsetforyou.gov.uk/education-and-training/education-and-training.aspx?folderIds=5377,43802 from 9am on Monday 12th November 2018.

Responses must be submitted either in writing to School Admissions Team, Dorset County Council, County Hall, Dorchester, DT1 1XJ or by email to schoolorganisation@dorsetcc.gov.uk by Friday 21st December 2018. Upon the conclusion of the consultation period all responses will be considered carefully and a report will be presented to the shadow executive prior to the determination deadline on 28th February 2019.

Swanage Remembrance Day service

Three pupils from Y6 represented St. Mary’s on Remembrance Sunday by attending the town’s service at St. Mary’s Parish Church and then marching to the War Memorial with other schools, youth groups, armed services representatives and dignitaries.  There were many other pupils from St. Mary’s present as part of the local  Brownie, Guide, Cub and Scout groups in attendance.  It was a very moving and special service to mark not only Remembrance Sunday, but also the centenary of the end of the First World War.

Pupils from Year 5 and Year 6 have been marking Remembrance by finding out about those men and women from Swanage who have made the ultimate sacrifice for our country.  They have created some rather special poppy wreaths that included the name and age of each of the ninety-nine men from Swanage who died in the First and Second World Wars.  Year 6 have also written prayers for remembrance and peace on the back of poppies.  The wreaths and prayers are on display in St. Mary’s Church.

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Plastic Free Supermarkets

This year the Green Team are working on reducing plastic waste at school and in our local environment. We established a link with the local Litter Free Purbeck group in Swanage after a visit from Wayne Dixon, who’s about half way around a litter picking/beach-cleaning walk around the UK coastline. Wayne is the No. 1 Litter Ambassador for Keep Britain Tidy and is also a recipient of one of the Prime Minister’s Points of Lights awards.

Read more about Wayne’s walk here. Photos of him and Koda in school to follow.

Harvest

A huge thank you to everyone who contributed so generously to our harvest collection for Swanage Foodbank.  All of the food will go to help vulnerable people in our own community.  We are hoping some of our school council will be able to visit and help sort food and find out about how the foodbank  works.

It was also lovely to welcome parents to Mass; you are always welcome to join us –  keep an eye on the school calendar for future dates and opportunities for you to join us for our worship times.

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CAST Visions & Values consultation

St Mary’s belongs to a multi-academy trust, Plymouth CAST, which includes 35 Catholic schools from Devon, Dorset and Cornwall. Recently a new CEO, Raymond Friel, was appointed and he has worked on producing a shared Vision and Values statement for the Trust based on the Gospel values. There is a consultation period until 14th October when comments are invited from pupils, parents, staff and governors. The document can be read as a word document or PDF.

If you would like to comment on any of the questions in the document, please either send an email using the form below or call in to school to speak with Mrs Gadston or Mrs Meteau.

Home to School Transport Consultation

Dorset are re-consulting on the Home to School Transport Policy and the Post 16 Transport Policy for 2019/2020 with effect from Monday 3rd September 2018 to Sunday 30th September 2018. Details of the consultation are available to view here. There are also two accompanying documents to provide additional information to potential respondents.

All comments (both negative and positive) should be sent to schoolorganisation@dorsetcc.gov.uk